The airlines ask the Government to veto a new European tax on kerosene with which Spain would lose 4.5 million tourists

The EU is negotiating a new package of energy taxes that includes a tax on airplane kerosene and the Spanish airlines are demanding that the Government veto such a possibility in Brussels, which would contribute to raising the price of tickets and could make Spain would lose up to 4.5 million tourists a year, who would instead prefer nearby but cheaper destinations like Turkey or Jordan.

The president of the Association of Airlines (ALA), Javier Gándara, warned this Monday of the pernicious effect that, as he said, the new energy tax that the EU has been negotiating for years would have, with a greater negative impact, in addition, in countries like Spain, which are recipients of tourists.

“They would be English or Germans who, instead of going to Spain, would go to Turkey, Egypt or Jordan”, whose airline companies would not be taxed with this new fuel tax, he warned at the III Climate Summit in the Aeronautical Sector organized in Madrid by the Official College of Aeronautical Engineers of Spain (COIAE). As explained, the ALA commissioned a report from Deloitte that calculates the civil aviation measures prepared by the EU to decarbonize the sector would mean the arrival of 12 million fewer tourists per year in Spain – in 2022, there were 71.6 million. -, of which 4.5 million would change destination due to a price increase due to the future tax on kerosene. Other factors that Gándara has mentioned as causing a price increase are the objectives to introduce 'green' fuels in airplanes, for which the ALA asks for “aid” like those that governments are giving in countries like the United Kingdom or the United States. United, because at the moment it costs “between three and six times more than conventional kerosene.”

Break the unanimity

The creation of a new kerosene tax is part of one of the 12 packages into which the European plan to decarbonize the economy is divided – the well-known Fit for 55 -, which consists of a directive on energy taxes, which provides for a new taxation for this sector, based on environmental efficiency, on taxes on new products and also treatment of the aviation and maritime transport sectors, which until now were left out of these issues.

Specifically, what it is about is setting a tax on kerosene used by airplanes and which will become a reality when a directive that has been negotiated for years is approved without an agreement being seen at the moment, unlike other aspects of the Fit for 55 on which the Twenty-seven have achieved a consensus, such as the reduction of C02 emissions in cars and vans or, more recently, on methane emissions.

For the energy tax directive to be approved, it is necessary that there be unanimity, that is, that the 27 European governments vote in favor and that is where the ALA has seen the opportunity to demand – still without success – that the Government veto the initiative , given that with a single vote against it it would not be possible to agree on it and, therefore, roll back the tax on kerosene that the airlines believe would especially harm countries like Spain, recipients of international tourism.. According to sources in this sector, others like Germany would not have much to lose because their tourists would only have to choose another non-EU destination where this tax would not be applied.

At the moment, ALA's request for Spain to apply its veto has not been heard by the Government, in full reflection on the design of the tax on energy companies that it created due to the energy crisis.. The negotiation of this directive in Brussels corresponds to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, although sources in the sector recognize that the Ministry of Ecological Transition does not want to give up the new tax, to discourage the use of fossil fuels, in this case in aviation.

The ALA warns that taxing the kerosene that moves airplanes would affect the price of the ticket, which, if raised, could make tourists from other European countries opt for other destinations.. Furthermore, the increase in ticket prices would put at risk the “democratization” of air transport.

Gándara has asked that “we not take away the achievement of aviation, that today flying is within the reach of all budgets.”. Don't let it go back to being something for the very rich like it was not too long ago.”. “There are movements that proclaim that you should be ashamed of flying. I think it is good and that it has improved the lives of millions of people, what we have to do is make sure that it remains affordable and increasingly sustainable,” added the general director for southern Europe of the EasyJet company. .

Sustainable fuels

The ALA has participated in a debate table on the decarbonization of air transport together with representatives of Enaire, Aena and the General Directorate of Civil Aviation of the Ministry of Transport, where the transition from fossil fuels to new fuels has also been the protagonist. sustainable, the so-called SAF, for which the international community has just set a series of objectives that will force countries like Spain or the rest of the EU to introduce them more quickly.

At the moment, SAF do not represent more than 0.2% of the fuels used in aviation, which accounts for 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions but is a sector with a complicated transition towards zero emissions. Prior to COP28 in Dubai, the countries of the world agreed on an aviation decarbonization target of 5% by 2030, as a preliminary step to net decarbonization in 2050 (that is, an end to emissions that cannot be offset).. That goal means using 7% of SAF, unevenly, with more burden for countries with technologies to do so, so that those in the EU will be responsible for up to 10%, an effort that, according to the airlines, could also lead to an increase in ticket prices if there is no public support to make this transition.

“One of the great windows of the SAF is that they no longer depend on you having fossil fuels,” Gándara pointed out, alluding to something that happens with all renewable energy generation, which makes Spain a potentially leading country for the sun. and the wind. He pointed out that “between 30 and 40” SAF production plants could be created here, which would create tens of thousands of jobs.

However, he has warned that these renewable energies still have time to fully develop and that this regulation be “complemented with aid such as other countries, the United Kingdom or the United States, at least for the escalation phase and for the transition to be made.” as orderly as possible.”